When I first got into the Dead I didn't know they were Palo Alto>San Rafael. I remember thinking they were a Berkeley band (in part due to the shows at the Greek). Still, they were a Berkeley house band to some extent, and imagine the Dead playing your high school – with only 3000 seats (granted, used as a community center, and just a couple blocks off UC campus)! This is: a) One of the Houseboat Tapes b) One of the best shows of summer '71 c) A show for Phil fans, with slides, runs & bombs laced like a mine field.

First Set. With a bang, maybe the best Bertha of '71, up there with 4/27 & 11/14. It's nearly impossible to pick a best Me & My Uncle from the dozens in '71 but I'm saying this is in the top 40 of all time, brother. Europe '72 is known to have the best versions of Mr. Charlie, but this smokes. It's only the 6th one. The next couple are average, with a pre-solo-era Sugaree and Bobby out of tune, until the awesome Big Railroad (better even than 4/5 or 10/19). Brokedown isn't the dirge it became at times and Playing gets a straight reading – except for the animated Phil. The rest of the set is average '71.

Second Set. The first part of Truckin' is cut on all sources. The set starts pretty average (though the middle jam of The Other One has cool, non-Dead-like moments) until a whopping Sugar Mag; powerful, snarling, and not like most '71s. NFA is also approached differently this night, and by GDtRFB the machine is ON! The hot double encore has the best UJB of '71.

1st Set:  B
2nd Set: B+
Overall = 4¼ Stars

Highlights:
Bertha – oft-noted, OFF released
Me & My Uncle – so many '71s are good, yet this stands out
Mr. Charlie – known more as a '72, but great here
Big Railroad Blues – one of the better versions
Sugar Mag>NFA>Goin' Down the Road – not approached quite like most '71s
Johnny B Goode – whole double encore flies
Uncle John's Band – best-ever candidate

SOURCES: The ladner_21268 SBD sounds best, though all SBDs have fluctuating pitch issues and run fast. Bertha through Mr. Charlie, El Paso, Brokedown through Cumberland, Promised Land, the first part of TOO, and UJB need -1.5% pitch correction. Sugaree, the second part of TOO, and Sugar Mag through JBG need -1.75%. Big Railroad & Big Boss need -2%. Loser & Truckin' need -1%, and Bobby McGee needs -1.25%. Bertha is on the Huckleberry Jam LP. The show will likely become an OFF release.

JasW – I caught the semitone descriptive error and came back to fix it (sticking to just the math), to see that you also caught it. Thanx for the help!
DireWharf – Thanx for clarifying. "Pitch" is an analog term for motor speed (therefore pitch) on professional decks. In the digital realm the distinction is made between "speed" & "pitch" because you can change one without the other. I prefer to stick with the old-school term for the correction, called "speed" in Audacity and most modern software, assuming assume anyone interested in accurate playback (and knowing the errors were introduced in the analog chain) will figure it out.

My new fav version of this tune. Jerry absolutely rips. Whole concert is fire tho

Yeah this one has very good sound.
HIGHLY recommended!
Pigpen is all in first set
but only hear him vocally during Set Two
for the reprise of NFA
but between Phil and Jerry this is rockin' and rollin'
If all the shows were this well recorded
I would need a bunch more down time.
PHIL ZONE.

Major difference from east coast Dead shows I had seen up to that point. The park across from Berkeley High School before the doors opened was the early form of later years of what became Shakedown Street. There just weren’t any vendors. I met Betty Cantor for my one and only time. She had a beautiful smile. Also met Phil. He was driving his BMW.
The concert itself was amazing. Sat next to the aisle half way back from the stage. A chillum filled with Lebanese red hash was passed to me. A few tokes and I was in a blissful state of being.
These two nights (also 8/15/71) coincided with my first trip to the Bay Area to visit my sister living in Sausalito . After a few days in Marin County I hitchhiked up to Lane County, Oregon to visit my brother and his wife who were living in a tipi 30 miles southeast of Eugene. As I was 17 and between junior and senior years of high school back in Connecticut I made up my mind to move out to Oregon after graduation in the spring of 72. Soon after that 71 trip to Northern California and Western Oregon I saw the film version of Sometimes A Great Notion based on the great American novel by Ken Kesey. All these mentioned influences, Grateful Dead, Ken Kesey, the Pacific Northwest , the Mediterranean “light” of the Bay Area, the old hippie scene of Eugene, Oregon, tipis, my own end of innocence yet still viewing the Universe with fresh eyes and open heart still burn bright in my soul. Long live the music of the Grateful Dead!

Just a great 71 show. Has alot of great moments throughout.nwore the tape out on this one.

JasW is confused about the Audacity effects. The corrections needed for GD sources are the result of tapes being played back at a different speed than the machines on which they were recorded, and those errors affect *both* the speed and the pitch. The built-in Audacity effect to correct for this is called "Change Speed" (not "Change Tempo," as JasW recommended).

Audacity's "Change Tempo" effect changes the speed of the source without changing the pitch. (And the algorithms it uses for this artificial manipulation can potentially degrade the sound quality.)

Audacity's "Change Pitch" effect (as JasW noted) changes the pitch of the source without changing the speed. (And as with the "Change Tempo" effect, the algorithms it uses for this artificial manipulation can potentially degrade the sound quality.)

Audacity's "Change Speed" effect changes *both* the speed *and* the pitch — which is what you want — and (happily) won't result in any degradation of the audio quality.

I'll just briefly note that Mind Wonderin' is a little off below on the pitch correction needed here. It's not a halftone (i.e., semitone) too fast. It's exactly a quarter of a semitone. In Change Pitch in Audacity, a Semitones setting of -0.25 yields a Percent Change of -1.434%. (For those wondering, I pulled out a loop of Pig playing an "E" during a tuning interlude, and this correction brought it in tune perfectly.) Take that -1.434% figure and plug it into Percent Change under Change Tempo in Audacity. Do not use Change Pitch -- while you will correct the pitch, remember that it won't decrease the slightly increased tempo that resulted from the too fast tape speed.

As for the show -- it's the summer of '71, what can I say? For me, this was their peak. 1971-08-06 Hollywood Palladium is a better show, but this one is no slouch, and is undeniably a worthy addition to a summer '71 playlist.

Absolute agree with the comment about "Phil Lesh and His Less Conspicuous Backup Band" haha. For years I steadfastly held to the doctrine that Skull and Roses was the ultimate in the Phil Zone, but now the Internet Archive has showed me the error of my ways. I respectfully acknowledge that the entire month of August 1971 is the pinnacle of Phil's Phat EB3 glory (never to be heard again after the EB3 was stolen before the show at Gaelic Park?)

Very hard to rate this one below a 5 due to the presence of fat guitar tones never to be heard again at a Dead show and also blissful jams in the interesting parts of the concert. It's patchy, but what makes a 5 is something to do with love.

BTW, I've really been enjoying Mind Wondrin's reviews. It's good to hear someone who knows some stuff expressing it for others' benefit.

Ditto on MW's endorsement of guitar tone talk: a very wine-tastey and synaesthetic form of sound-art criticism that I find fun.

This probably Is 5 stars for me except the hack job on the other one . that's one song! anybody who likes the Dead knows that. do you enjoy your song starting and stopping on you? Epic show Great sound, lots of fun!

This is a high quality, well played show. '71 was still a time of Dead innocence and growth. The sounds, songs, and audience experiences were not yet stale. Jerry's background vocals on Bobby McGee say it all for me. Passion, muscianship, companionship, the desire to put out music that reached the sun, stars, and our souls. I miss those times.

Turn your bass up, and let Phil take you there.

Dear Feldspar- The band playing "Happy Birthday" on the day you were born is very cool indeed. How many others can say that? (I can't.)

This show was played on the day I was born, and they actually play "Happy Birthday." While you may not care, I find that incredibly cool.

Sugaree is unreal, best singing of it ever. Brokedown is beautiful. The second set kicks a bit thanks to Phil.

Well great show, great sound... Gotta have it.

On par with the 8/6 Hollywood Palldium show for best of 71 in my opinion...

I love the clarity of this soundboard with both Jerry & Phil front and center. All of the songs are well done, especially the Pig tunes considering his health issues at the time. The Other One jam has hints of MLB and then Feeling Groovy and then Spanish Jam. Top it off with a great NFA-GDTRFB and you easily have a 5 star show.

This is something I never even dreamed of finding. On this day, my very first summer in Canada and the U.S, I was walking in the street in San Fransisco and met these two young guys who said, there´s a good concert tonight on the other side, why don´t you come along... and I went, of course, and saw this Grateful Dead show in Berkeley.. truly amazing what you can find on the net almost 40 years later. Where did all those years go? - The music is fresh as ever. All the best from Finland

The essence of the Dead is all-right here.
This is it. Whatever it is.
This show reminds me of a clenched fist.
Phil Lesh is God.

1971 is, in many ways, the best Grateful Dead music, culminating in the December 5th Felt Forum show. Anybody concur?

Still, these earlier '71 shows are very special. I've always been somewhat prejudiced against pianos in rock bands. To this day I am a believer in what I'll call the "Beatles" model - lead, rhythm, bass and drums. (Forgive me, Pigpen)

How about that Railroad Blues? These guys are on fire!

`

~^|\_@|@_/|^~
~<->/<->\<->~

~This Day in GRATEFUL DEAD History~

I couldn't be there in 71', but I showed up today, despite the actions of fascists, bigots, communists, socialists, and other degenerate scum...so, like; where were you...man?

Listen to this show...LISTEN TO GARCIA'S SOUND AT THIS SHOW....THIS IS THE SOUND THAT MADE HIM FAMOUS....PHIL LESH IS A MONSTER....."Crank It Up"....CIU.

This "Live" show should have been released commercially, it's that good.

With that incredible 1971 sound the GRATEFUL DEAD are rehearsed, energized, confident, hungry, in the groove and ready to kick some ass from the stage. Even the singin' sounds pretty good...this show is definitely "Happenin'".

A true Rock-N-Roll performance. I wish I was at this show, but I was livin' on the East Coast.

Garcia's guitar sound lights up like the sun and screams at the crowd.

Phil's sound is fat "earth-shaking", funky and awesome. It's a "Phil" night, yeah...a "Phil" night.

Bobby's singin' & syncopated rhythm guitar sounds terrific.

It's a one drummer in the pocket performance...the dance-ablity is over the top...

I highly recommend adding this show to your 1971 GRATEFUL DEAD collection. 1971 was the "Best Year" in GRATEFUL DEAD music in my opinion...

"Hard To Handle" is superb. It's longer than "Playin' In The Band"...remember those days? Pigpen only sings a couple of songs but he's singin and playin on several more.

Truckin' fades in and goes into "The Other One-->Jam-->The Other One...a Classic GRATEFUL DEAD musical experience...the kind of performance that made them "infamous".

Garcia's not usin' his WHA-WHA pedal on "Sugar Magnolia"...like he was back in April 71'. The tune up session after SM is eye opening...Pig's B'3 saves the day.

I recommend using your EQ during playback of most of the shows on the IA, this one included.

Windows Media Player has a 10 band EQ and SRS WOW effects that enhance the sound.

Here's one way to stream/dowload this show:

The IA recommends users of Windows XP view this web-page with RealPlayer.

RealPlayer is a free media player you can download at www.realplayer.com.

Using RealPlayer to view this webpage, click the VBR M3U link to open the songs in the Playlist.

If your Playlist is not open, open it by clicking the Playlist icon at the lower right hand corner of RealPlayer.

Once the songs are in the Playlist, double click the song to play it, then click the record button at the lower left hand corner of Realplayer to record it.

When the red line reaches the other end click the stop button to download the song. Your song is in the RealPlayer Downloads folder.

Repeat these steps for each song.

OR

Hook up audio cables (1/8th inch stereo male jack with two rca male jacks at the other end) from your headphone jack on your computer to your audio input on your Reel to Reel, Cassette,VHS, CD, DVD, MP3, recorder and record it in real time...duh?

Eat, Drink, Be Merry and Listen to the GRATEFUL DEAD, for tomorrow we may die....

Thanks for the LOVE from 1971.

PS: Remember to click on the "DeadLists Project" link and get the "Poster" for this show.

PSS: Get the next night too: http://www.archive.org/details/gd1971-08-15.sbd.gustin.131.sbeok.shnf

Every song a super-charged delight.

You can truly hear the difference in hall sound as compared with where they usually played in 1971, Fillmore West & Winterland.

BCT had astounding acoustics. Saw Hendrix there 5-30-70 and many others including the GD about 10 times dating back to 1-13-67.

This night and the one following are the only two occasions I ever saw the GD play in the city in which I resided. Both nights are jewels of spirited and enthusiastically energetic repartee'.

Seems as though the '93 'Deadbase' listed as a guest artist for one set of the 08-14/15-71 run the late Vince Gauraldi, theme music composer/performer for the Peanuts TV specials and bandleader. I don't recall that occurring on the 15'th, my first show, but i DO remember thinking early in the first set that standard tags just would not apply..i had to come up with a new way to describe just exactly what kind of music i was hearing. After considering it for a furthur .4 milliseconds i had sussed out that these guys were the greatest Country & Spacetern band in the galaxy & it struck me like a bolt that one need not merely stand helplessly before great art. Anyway bless up the New Riders. Their opening set was just perfect. Oh and though i'm from the New Orleans area i'm not the 'guy from New Orleans' down front BW regales for being 'drunk on beer all afternoon' and 'yelling for White Rabbit'. I was in the balcony.

Phil is incredible in both of these shows! Heavy, Heavy Bass licks!
Another Fine Day in The People's Republic!

I have about 1/3 of the 71 shows on disk, and this one is in my top ____ list. Blazing lead from JerG will remind you of the blistering sound coming out of your obligatory Ladies and Gentleman set. Combine this with 8-6-71 and you start to feel what 71 is all about. Check it out.

From beginning to end a very strong, sometimes stellar show. Hard To Handle and Cumberland Blues are among my favorite versions of those songs ever played. 8/06's Hard To Handle is also outstanding. I love the different treatment El Paso gets, much slower and close to the original than they would play it later, but it has a really nice power and feel to it. Seriously fine playing by all but Jerry and Phil really stick out. Man they were on this night. In fact all of August '71 is fantastic. '71 was such a crazy year from Mickeys' leaving and the raw swagger of the earlier part of the year to the addition of Keith in late Sept (I think). BTW I love the two keyboard sound of Pigpen and Keith. Well it seems by August they'd more than weathered Mickey's loss and the Dead were nothing less than outstanding!

I concur with Dr. Flashback. There is a mind left body riff in the jam out of The Other One. This MLB jam is different from the others, though, in that Jerry lays down some power chords that are like crashing thunder. Sick stuff all throughout....

5/5

Hey Now, I love IA day in dead history as this is how I found this show. after listening wow! good sound quality, classic song selection, the deep intro of Bill Graham, and crosby's birthaday salute. this show is amazing. What it was all about, for sure!

Between 1967 and 1976 I attended more Bay Area Dead shows than I can remember. From the Polo Fields to Kezar Stadium and most points in between. I can honestly say that of all the recorded shows I've listened to, this one embodies the the sound of the Grateful Dead better than any other. I was at this show and it felt different because of the acoustics and comfortable assigned seating. No band delivered the sound quality of the Dead at this time in history, and no bass player ever sounded like Phil Lesh live. This recording captures that "feel," the physical sensation that is the Grateful Dead sound.

As Dr. Flashback said about the jam in "The Other One," there is a sort of MLB type jam that developes. But to my musical ears, it really sounds more like an early developement of the beautiful jam from the secopnd half of the "Dark Star" on Dick's Picks Volume 2. Either way, it is bad ass.

This show and the next night have got to be released from the vault. Stop torturing us heads. Please!

Hot show!

4 out of 5

I'd hate to be trapped in a spook house with this geronimo character.
To hell with the 3 second thing.

What about the music :1.Big Railroad 2.Hard to Handle, just examples.

Each song in set one has the wonderful 3 second pause before it. (thanks so much!!) Set II begins with a fade into truckin. Finally, this setlist is not even close to Deadbase's(?).

I got this in an email from dead.net today... The Vault masters of this show and the next night were recently disovered and it sounds like they will be released sometime in the near future, so if you want this show for free, grab it while you can! (It sounds great, BTW!)

In the spring of 2005, Keith's brother Brian and son Zion were cleaning out the houseboat, found the tapes, and gave them to Donna, whose jaw dropped. One call to Lemieux later, and the Dead's long-lost missing tour from the summer of 1971 had resurfaced. Master tapes include April 28 and 29 at the Fillmore East (released as "Ladies and Gentlemen," which was mixed from the multi-track masters), the 7/31 Yale Bowl (alas, the reels were blank), a small piece of the second Hollywood Palladium show, the complete shows from Berkeley Community Theatre 8/14 & 8/15, and others. Dick's Pick #35 is the complete San Diego (8/7/71) show, all that was salvageable of the 8/24 Chicago show, and an hour-plus of the Hollywood Palladium (8/6), which is all that existed on the tapes.

There is something unique about the way the shows from Berkeley Community Theater sound. Can't put my finger on it, but it's a good thing! This is an excellent show, and even though I prefer the 15th over this one, I wouldn't(didn't )hesitate to grab this too. Hard To Handle is definately one of the hotter versions out there, and Cumberland ain't bad either. I think they played some of their best shows with this original 5 man line-up in the post-Fillmore/pre-Keith era. A small sliver of time in a huge run. If you like 1971, you'll love this. 4 stars, because I gave the 15th 5.

What an amazing find these shows are (8-14 & 15 -71)! ItÃÂs hard to believe they somehow evaded me for so long.

Like many, IÃÂve had the audience tapes of the Hollywood 8-5/6 shows, and considered their absence from the Vault a big loss. But we have these shows, which rest assured are of equal caliber. In fact, if these four shows were all available in similar sound quality for comparison, I strongly suspect that peopleÃÂs opinion of the relative merits of the shows would change.

Yes, my two or three very favorite moments come from the Hollywood shows (specifically, moments in each of the Other OneÃÂs), but overall, if my back was against the wall and I had to pick one show, I would probably give the nod to 8/14.

The high points from all four of these shows are undoubtedly the Other One jams. It is no coincidence that the boys played it back-to-back in both runs. In 1971, the Other One was THE signature jam of the band. Though theyÃÂd been jamming on it for fully four years, I find these 71 ones to be my favorite. Portchester 2-23, Fillmore 4-28, Fillmore West 7-2, which David Gans once described as ÃÂmoltenÃÂ ÃÂ they are all momentous musical events in the DeadÃÂs history. And the four from these runs belong center square in this group. IÃÂm particularly partial to 8-5 (I love those blood-curdling yells from the audience in all the right places!), and the Me & My Uncle segueway part in 8-6 ÃÂ but this is a review of Berkeley 8-14/15 ÃÂ I digress.

These August 71 shows also have musical historical significance. They represent the last shows with solid body Gibson guitars (Jerry and Phil). By the time of the Gaelic Park gig 8-26, Jerry had switched to a Strat and Phil was playing a hollow body. Two months prior to a further thinning out of the bandÃÂs guitars due to Keith joining, this was the last time we would here those big, fat Gibson tones emanating from JerryÃÂs amps. ItÃÂs my opinion that JerryÃÂs switching to a StratÃÂas well as KeithÃÂs pianoÃÂaffected (adversely) JerryÃÂs style in a feedback-loop sort of way. The thinner tones influenced Jerry to play with less vibrato and ballsiness, and play more scales. This was exacerbated by the addition of KeithÃÂs percussive piano playing later that year. Was the thinning of JerryÃÂs sound evident at the Gaelic Park show just two weeks later? IÃÂm not sure. You be the judge.

Back to the shows. The sound quality is exceptional. There are some problems in the mix in places. Overall, PhilÃÂs bass is out front in both channels. Now, IÃÂd be the first to admit that there are a lot worse things than having Phil too loud. On the two Other One jams we *really* get to hear PhilÃÂs brilliance crystal clear.

Jerry in parts is a little too far back in the mix. But thatÃÂs OK, too. The biggest problem is that BobbyÃÂs guitar appears and disappears in the mix. In fact, in the 8-14 Not Fade Away jam, it seems as if he disappears altogether! This is a *real* shame, because this is a longer than usual NFA jam, and Jerry and Phil are kickinÃÂ ass. The absence of WeirÃÂs rhythmic glue is a real shame.

But that astride, and taken as a whole, these shows sounds GREAT! They belong in every serious Dead HeadÃÂs collection. In fact I would say that the two shows belong in DickÃÂs Picks. This is the real deal. The end of an era?

I have had 8/15 for some time and loved it, now it's nice to have both nights, and this one is now my favorite. With the show starting with a Bertha, Uncle, Mr.Charlie, Sugaree lineup, it's beginning to look, and sound like a Europe 72 show. And with a Brokedown, Loser, Hard to Handle and Cumberland to follow -you're hooked! Even the Playin is starting to get, well, jammy!

Listening now to the Truckin>Other One>Jam. Wow. the boys are in Berkeley and preaching to the choir. They blast out of the gate like it's 1969, then space it out to mellowville with Jerry leading the way with sparkling jazzy non-wah riffs. Do you hear the China Cat theme halfway thru? Quickly morphs into a prototype MLB jam before turning dark and modal again then thundering back to the verse. Definitely "burning crater of my mind" territory!
Two discs of pure Dead Magic. Highly recommended.
enjoy,
Dr. Flashback ;-)
PS - get the second night as well!

Wow, this jam in other one is actually an acoustic journey from the surprise of birth to the eventual agony of death - a full psychedelic experience!!!